You're staring at your keyboard, and there it is. Right between the alphanumeric keys and the functions, or maybe tucked away near the Shift key, sits a character you’ve seen a thousand times but never actually named. It's a tilde. Or maybe you're looking at the pipe. Perhaps it's the "hamburger" menu icon on a laptop bezel. Honestly, most of us just call it "the squiggle" or "the line thingy" until we’re forced to type it into a password or a line of code.
Keyboards are archaeological sites of dead technology. We still have a "SysRq" key that nobody uses and a "Scroll Lock" that mostly just ruins your Excel workflow. But the symbols? Those are the real mysteries. Understanding what that symbol on the keyboard is requires a bit of a history lesson and a look at how modern operating systems like Windows 11 and macOS Sequoia handle input.
The Tilde and the Grave Accent
That little wavy line (~), usually found right below the Escape key, is the tilde. Most people call it the "Spanish squiggle" because of its use over the letter 'n' (ñ), but in the world of computing, it’s a powerhouse. Back in the days of MS-DOS, it was used to shorten long filenames. If you had a folder named "My Summer Vacation 1998," DOS would see it as MYSUMM~1.
It’s often paired with the grave accent (`). That’s the backtick. It looks like a falling snowflake or a backwards apostrophe. If you’re a programmer, you know the backtick is essential for template literals in JavaScript. If you aren't a programmer, you probably only hit it by accident when you’re trying to reach for the number 1.
The tilde has a mathematical soul, too. It means "approximately." If you write ~$50, you're saying it's about fifty bucks. It's simple. It's elegant. Yet, it remains one of the most frequently searched "what is this" items because its placement feels so arbitrary on a standard QWERTY layout.
The Pipe and the Backslash
Look above your Enter key. You’ll see a vertical line that looks like it’s broken in the middle, or sometimes a solid bar (|). That is the pipe.
In the 1970s, Unix developers decided this little vertical line would be the "plumbing" of the computer. It literally "pipes" the output of one command into the input of another. If you’re ever watching a tech thriller and see a hacker typing furiously, they are probably using pipes to filter data.
Right below it is the backslash (). Don't confuse it with the forward slash (/).
- Forward slash: / (Used for URLs and division)
- Backslash: \ (Used for file paths in Windows)
It’s a common mistake. Even tech-savvy people trip up. Windows uses C:\Users\Name, while the entire internet uses https://. Why? Because back in the early 80s, IBM and Microsoft wanted to be different from the Unix systems that came before them. Now we’re stuck with two different slashes for the rest of eternity.
The Caret and the Ampersand
Shift + 6. That’s the caret (^).
Some people call it the hat. In math, it denotes an exponent, like $2^3$ for two cubed. In proofreading, it tells you where to insert a word. In the world of French linguistics, it’s a circumflex. It’s a busy little symbol for something that looks like a tiny roof.
Then there’s the ampersand (&). Shift + 7.
Did you know "ampersand" is a corruption of the phrase "and per se and"? It used to be the 27th letter of the alphabet. Seriously. Kids used to recite their ABCs and end with "X, Y, Z, and per se and." Over time, the phrase slurred together into the word we use today. It’s actually a ligature—a combination of the letters 'e' and 't' from the Latin word "et," which means "and." If you look at certain cursive fonts, you can still see the 'E' and 'T' hiding in the design.
The Pound, the Hash, and the Octothorpe
The # symbol.
If you’re over 40, it’s the pound sign.
If you’re a millennial, it’s a hashtag.
If you’re a musician, it’s a sharp (well, technically a sharp is slightly different, but close enough).
If you’re a pedant, it’s an octothorpe.
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Bell Labs engineers reportedly coined the term "octothorpe" in the 1960s. They needed a name for the symbol on their new touch-tone phones. "Octo" refers to the eight points on the symbol. The "thorpe" part? Some say it was named after athlete Jim Thorpe, others say it’s an Old English word for a village. No one really knows for sure. That’s the beauty of keyboard lore. It’s half-logic and half-myth.
The Asterisk and the Star
The little star ().
In the 2020s, it’s mostly used to denote a correction in a text message. "I'll be there at 8."
But its real name is the asterisk, from the Greek asteriskos, meaning "little star." In coding, it’s the multiplication symbol. In database queries (SQL), it’s a wildcard that means "everything." If you type SELECT *, you’re asking the computer to give you every single piece of data it has on a topic. It’s the "all-access pass" of the keyboard.
Surprising Symbols You Might Be Seeing
Sometimes the question "what is this symbol on the keyboard" isn't about a key at all, but an icon on the key.
The Command Key (⌘)
If you’re on a Mac, you have the "pretzel" or the "cloverleaf." This is the Command key. Susan Kare, the legendary designer who created the icons for the original Macintosh, found this symbol in a Swedish dictionary of heraldry. It’s actually a sign used in Nordic countries to mark a "place of interest" or a tourist attraction. Apple needed a symbol to replace the Apple logo on the keyboard because Steve Jobs felt there were too many logos on the screen. Now, millions of people use a Swedish road sign to copy and paste their emails.
The Option Key (⌥)
Also on Macs. It looks like a slide or a switch. That’s exactly what it represents: a "level" or an alternative path. It tells the computer, "Hey, I want to do the second thing this key can do."
The Windows Key (⊞)
It’s a flag. It’s a window. It’s the bane of gamers who accidentally hit it in the middle of a match and get kicked back to the desktop. Most modern gaming keyboards now include a "Win Lock" button just to disable this specific symbol.
Why Do These Symbols Even Exist?
We are using a layout designed for mechanical typewriters from the late 1800s. The QWERTY layout was intended to prevent the metal arms of a typewriter from jamming by separating common letter pairs. When computers came along, engineers just slapped new symbols onto the existing grid.
That’s why the layout feels chaotic. Why is the @ symbol above the 2? In the UK, it’s not—it’s over by the Enter key. Keyboard layouts are regional, cultural, and historical. If you buy a keyboard in France (AZERTY) or Germany (QWERTZ), the "symbols on the keyboard" will be in entirely different zip codes.
Practical Next Steps for Keyboard Mastery
If you’re tired of hunting for these symbols or wondering what they do, here is how you actually master them.
- Learn the Alt Codes: On Windows, you can hold the Alt key and type a number on the Numpad to get symbols that aren't even on your keyboard. Alt+0153 gives you the Trademark symbol (™). Alt+0162 gives you the cent sign (¢).
- Use the Character Viewer: On Mac, press
Cmd + Control + Space. It opens a menu with every symbol imaginable, from emojis to obscure mathematical operators. - Remap Your Keys: If you hate where the Tilde is, use software like PowerToys (Windows) or Karabiner-Elements (Mac) to move it. You don't have to live with the layout IBM gave you in 1984.
- Clean Your Keyboard: Sometimes the reason you can't tell what a symbol is is simply because of three years of accumulated dust. A can of compressed air and a microfiber cloth can reveal symbols you forgot existed.
- Check Your Language Settings: If your keyboard is typing a # when you hit the " key, your computer thinks you're in the United Kingdom. Go to your language settings and ensure it's set to "US International" or your specific region.
Understanding these symbols isn't just about trivia. It’s about reducing the friction between your brain and the screen. The next time someone asks you to "type the octothorpe," you won't just stare at the keys—you'll hit Shift+3 with the confidence of a 1960s Bell Labs engineer.
The keyboard is a map of human intent. Every symbol, from the humble period to the complex section sign (§), was put there because someone, at some point, needed to communicate something specific. We’re just the ones keeping the tradition alive, one keystroke at a time.
To get the most out of your typing experience, start by opening a simple text editor and hitting every key combination with the 'Shift' and 'Alt/Option' modifiers. You'll find a hidden layer of symbols—like the degree sign (°) or the bullet (•)—that are sitting right under your fingertips, waiting to be used. Mastering these shortcuts is the fastest way to transition from a hunt-and-peck typist to a power user who never has to look down at the board.